374,000 Duke Energy customers' personal info may have been exposed in data breach

A spokesman for Duke Energy said a more than 370,000 of the utility company’s customers may have had their public information exposed in a data-breach involving a third-party payment processing company.

Ryan Mosier said a vendor who owns one of the networks Duke Energy uses to process customer payments in walk-in locations announced on December 1 that they had identified a potential breach that exposed approximately 1.6 million of their customers, including 374,000 Duke Energy customers.

Because of the breach, customers who pay their bills at walk-in locations will have to use alternate means of making payments.

“This is a TIO issue that has possibly and unfortunately affected our customers,” Mosier said. “We are doing all we can to help. This issue is broader than Duke Energy and affects the customers of any company who used the Global Express network for payment processing. We have remained in daily contact with the vendor companies since they abruptly and unexpectedly disabled their system on Nov. 10 for suspected “security vulnerabilities.”

Mosier said personal information that may have been compromised includes, name, address, Duke Energy account number, account balance and banking information, if the customer paid by check.

Any affected customers will be notified by TIO and receive instructions on how to register for one year of complimentary credit monitoring.

Duke Energy Carolinas customers who need to make a payment can do so at any Western Union location or can pay by check, debit or credit card by calling 800-777-9898, select option 2 for “billing and payments,” then option 1 to make a payment.

“This will be the process going forward until we are able to negotiate a permanent solution at our authorized walk-in payment locations for Duke Energy Carolinas,” Mosier said.